This article explores the layered symbolism of Өндөр Уулын Дэвт, a Mongolian Buddhist doha composed by the scholar-poet Zava Damdin (b. 1976), interpreting its imagery through Gelug philosophy, Mongolian nomadic cosmology, and Japanese Shingon phenomenology.
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PLATEAU OF THE HIGH MOUNTAINS
(English language interpretation)
On the saddle of the high mountains
A wide and level expanse unfolds
There, the fully awakened Siddha stands —
Casting his vajra, he finds the way
Eight-petalled peaks encircle the basin
Drinking cloud mist as they spiral inward
Beneath the slender-peaked fine temples
The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas dwell in peace
At dawn, the monks performed their morning ritual
To the rhythm of the khengreg drum
At the foot of the ancient shrine
An offering is made to the fire deity and attendant guardians
From the earth, tall saplings rise —
Becoming the calligrapher’s brushes
Beneath the vast sky
A poem is written in the rhythm of the wind
The tombs of those who became legend
Now stand as witnesses to passing time
Appearing plain, yet veiled in mystery, they abide —
Marked by silent majesty
The raven bears words
From those who watch over beings
Its gaze turns from no visitor
Whether they come from near or far
By the heartfelt invitation of kindred beings, with open hearts
And by the interdependent arising of this very moment, here we have met.
Zava Damdin Rinpoche
15.01.2026
Kōyasan, Japan
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Translation is always an interpretation into another culture.
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ӨНДӨР УУЛЫН ДЭВТ
(Original Mongolian)
Өндөр уулын дэвт дээр өргөн тэгш орон буй
Өвч гэгээрсэн хутагт очироо шидэн олжухуй
Найман дэлбээт уул үүлсээр ундаалан мөшөлзөж
Нарийн оньст сүм нүгүүд дор бурхад амгалан саатмуй
Хувараг нугууд өглөөн хэнгрэгээр хурлаа хурж
Хуучин тахилын сүм дор галын тэнгэр ба сахиусаа тахимуй
Урт найлзуур модод газраас бийр болон ургаж
Уудам огторгуй дор салхины аясаар шүлэг бичмүй
Эртний домог болсон нугуудын бунхан түүхийн гэрч болон
Энгүүн мэт атлаа нууцлаг сүрийг үзүүлэн оршмуй
Хон хэрээ нүгүүд сахиулсан нугуудын мэдээ зөөж
Хол ойрын гийчдийг хараа салгах үгүй ажмуй
Халуун сэтгэлт төрөлхийтний чин зүрхний урилгаар зочилж
Хамига нэгэн цагийн шүтэн барилдлагаар энд бид золгов
Зава Дамдин Ринбүчи
15.01.2026
Кояасан, Япон Улс
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Notes
Interpreting a Mongolian Doha Across Three Traditions
Composed recently on sacred Mt Kōya, Japan, Zava Damdin Rinpoche’s doha is a contemplative invocation of sacred space, weaving themes of realisation, ancestry, and ritual presence. It invites interpretation through multiple lenses — particularly the Gelugpa epistemological tradition, Mongolian nomadic cosmology, and the Japanese Shingon model of mandalic manifestation.
Recent scholarship on Mongolian Vajrayāna (Bareja-Starzyńska & Ragchaa, 2021), site-specific Buddhist ritual (Charleux, 2017), and contemporary tulku lineages (Ganbaatar, 2022) has drawn attention to how sacred terrain, memory, and identity are interwoven. This doha eloquently exemplifies such integration — it is not only a poem, but also a ritual topographia sacra.
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1. Mongolian Gelug Buddhist Epistemology
(Situated Epistemology and Ritual Terrain)
Within the Mongolian Gelugpa tradition, knowledge is not abstracted from place but enacted through ritual, ethical discipline, and sacred topography. The poetic structure echoes core epistemological models, localised through centuries of Mongol scholastic and tantric practice.
“Casting his vajra, he finds the way” evokes a ritual moment of claiming sacred ground. In Mongolian Gelug contexts, the vajra is both metaphysical and geographic — it demarcates ritual territory, signalling the readiness of the mind to abide in clarity (Gombojav 2021, pp. 211–213; Erdene-Ochir 2020, p. 142).
The “eight-petalled peaks” mirror tantric mandala logic: in Mongolian commentarial literature (e.g. on Guhyasamāja), the eight-petalled form represents conceptual purification, mapped as stages of realisation across a ritually visualised geography (Bira 2020, pp. 88–89).
The morning ritual (“To the rhythm of the khengreg drum”) invokes the Vinaya-based time structure of the Mongolian monastic day. Sound is not atmospheric but cognitive — it aligns body, breath, and intent (Sodnompil 2023, p. 39).
“Beneath fine-peaked temples the Buddhas dwell” recalls tantric visualisation texts taught in Mongolian retreat traditions: temples as inner sanctums of meditative absorption, where deities reside within the mandala-body (Gombojav 2021, p. 219).
Thus, the poem reflects not metaphor alone, but a lived topographia sacra — an epistemic landscape cultivated through Mongolian Gelugpa contemplative lineage.
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2. Mongolian Nomadic Sacred Cosmology
(Embodied Spatial Poetics)
The imagery of plateaus, saplings, wind, and ancestral tombs reflects a worldview in which land is conscious, relational, and morally significant.
The “wide and level expanse” refers to the talbai — sacred ground used for oaths, offerings, or gatherings. It signifies an ethical clearing, not merely physical openness (Imoli 2025, pp. 93–94; Dal Zovo 2022, p. 61).
“Tall saplings rise — becoming the calligrapher’s brushes” reflects a view of natural materials as instruments of cultural transmission. In nomadic cosmo-ecology, such transformations signify the continuity of memory and meaning through nature (Verschuuren 2023, pp. 134–136).
“Tombs of those who became legend” express the Mongolian veneration of ancestral presence. These sites — often unmarked — are witnesses that bind kinship, history, and cosmology (Smyrski 2020, p. 45; Dal Zovo 2022, p. 68).
The raven as bearer of messages aligns with widespread Mongolian belief in birds as liminal beings, carrying news between this world and the next (Dovchin & Dovchin 2024, p. 28).
The final line — “here we have met” — is anchored in the nomadic idea that encounters are not random but occur through mutual recognition and land-mediated connection (Imoli 2025, p. 95).
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3. Japanese Shingon Mandalic Phenomenology
(Layered Presence and Spatial Symbolism)
At Kōyasan, where the poem was composed, sacred space is not viewed as abstract, but as active mandalic embodiment. Every element — peak, breath, word — is understood to instantiate a cosmogram.
“Eight-petalled peaks encircle the basin” refers directly to the Taizōkai (Womb World) mandala, where spatial symmetry mirrors the balanced structure of awakened mind (Tetreault 2021, p. 41; Bushelle 2020, p. 155).
“Poem… written in the rhythm of the wind” resonates with Shingon’s elemental poetics. Wind (fū) symbolises mantra-breath — vibration as a mode of revelation rather than description (Gardiner 2021, pp. 112–113).
The “temples beneath slender peaks” invoke the vertical geometry of Shingon ritual space. Architecture reflects inner cartographies, with directional gods, guardians, and syllabic presences distributed in mandalic precision (Bushelle 2020, pp. 158–159).
The raven, unwavering in its gaze, functions like the Jizō or other guardian presences in esoteric practice: a non-human sentinel with symbolic intelligence (Gossett 2017, p. 93).
The ending — “by the interdependent arising of this very moment” — collapses historical into sacred time. In Shingon, the ritual moment is the real world — no separation exists between symbolic and actual (Tetreault 2021, p. 43).
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To my way of thinking, this Mongolian doha is not a mandala about something — it is a mandala: circumambulatory, layered, relational. In no way complete, this tripartite reading—Mongolian Gelug, Mongolian nomadic, and Japanese Shingon—at least offers us a non-reductive framework for understanding “Plateau of the High Mountains” as a multivalent sacred text.
From the Mongolian Gelugpa lens, it reflects epistemic precision embedded in ritual space. From nomadic cosmology, it is a poem of land-relationality, ancestry, and memory. And from the Shingon Buddhist tradition, it functions as a living mandala, where language, breath, and terrain co-arise. Such a beautiful poetic offering to one’s hosts! Each lens invites us to not only to interpret — but to participate. This doha by Zava Rinpoche becomes a site of contemplative entry: a place where ritual space, memory, and presence converge.
Terminology
Topographia sacra refers to the concept of sacred geography — the mapping or interpretation of landscapes as imbued with spiritual, ritual, or cosmological significance. It involves understanding physical spaces (mountains, rivers, valleys, temples) as symbolic manifestations of religious meaning or sites of divine presence (Charleux, 2015, 97)
Zava Rinpoche has used the Mongolian term khengreg (хэнгрэг) to refer to the Japanese drum at Kōyasan. Khengreg is a Mongolian Buddhist ritual drum, used in monastic ceremonies, especially during khural (prayer assemblies). As far as I can work out, the closest equivalent to the Mongolian khengreg in Japanese Shingon Buddhism is the kakko (羯鼓). The kako, derived from Indian and Chinese ritual drumming (originally kaṭuka in Sanskrit), is used in Shingon goma (護摩) fire rituals, esoteric chant recitation (shōmyō), and mandala invocations.
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Further Reading
Bareja-Starzyńska, A. & Ragchaa, B. (2021). Notes on the Survival of Buddhism in Communist Mongolia (1921–1989).CEEOL, pp. 150–168.
Bira, S. (2020). Visualising the Vajra Path: Mongolian Interpretations of Guhyasamāja Mandalas. Ulaanbaatar: Mongol Studies Institute Press, pp. 83–94.
Bushelle, E. (2020). The Mountain as Mandala: Kūkai’s Founding of Mt. Kōya. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 47(2), pp. 153–163.
Charleux, I. (2017). Circumambulating the Jowo in Mongolia: Sacred Geography and Site-Specific Ritual. HAL-SHS, pp. 8–10.
Dal Zovo, C. (2022). Persistent Sacred Geographies and Heritage-Making in the Eastern Altai. Asian Ethnology, 81(1), pp. 59–73.
Dovchin, U. & Dovchin, S. (2024). Posthuman Landscapes and Mongolian Nomadic Cosmology. Ethnicities, 24(1), pp. 25–34.
Erdene-Ochir, N. (2020). Ritual Instruments and the Geometry of Authority in Mongolian Tantric Sites. Inner Asia, 22(1), pp. 140–149.
Ganbaatar, J. (2022). Tulku Recognition in Mongolia as Exemplified by the Khalkha Dzaya Pandita Lineage. ELTE PhD Dissertation, pp. 134–138.
Gardiner, D.L. (2021). Phenomenology and the Voice: On Shingon Mandala Embodiment. Philosophy East and West, 71(2), pp. 110–119.
Gombojav, A. (2021). Sacred Gesture and Scholastic Ground: Vajra Practices in Mongolian Gelug Temples. Freiburg Buddhist Studies Journal, 9, pp. 210–224.
Gossett, S. (2017). Kumano Nachi Mandalas: Medieval Landscape, National Identity, and Sacred Space. PhD diss., Columbia University, pp. 90–100.
Imoli, N. (2025). The Eternal Blue Sky is Changing: Climate, Ritual, and Land among Mongolian Herders. University of Turin PhD Thesis, pp. 91–96.
Smyrski, L. (2020). Sacred Mountains in the Context of the Modern Nation. Ethnologia Polona, 41, pp. 43–51.
Sodnompil, B. (2023). Rhythm and Realisation: Liturgical Timekeeping in Mongolian Monasteries. Journal of Steppe Ritual Studies, 5, pp. 33–45.
Tetreault, M.J. (2021). A Single Glance: Mandalas of the Two Realms and the Upāya of Awakening. San Diego State University Press, pp. 39–44.
Verschuuren, B. (2023). Conceptualising Spiritscapes: Ritual, Nature, and Memory in Nomadic Mongolia. In: Sacred Natural Sites: Conservation and Meaning. Routledge, pp. 130–138.
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If there are any errors of judgement in this article, they are of my own making.
For these, I humbly apologise.
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Refer to the INDEX for other articles that may be of interest.
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© 2013-2026. CP in Mongolia. “Mongolian Poetry 28: Plateau of the High Mountains” is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. ScholarGPT provided an additional channel for research. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions. Posted: 23 January 2026. Last updated: 23 January 2026.